Datei:Spencer Haynes Loving Life
Beschreibung Performed April 9, 2016 at Auer Hall - IU Jacobs School of Music. A tremendous thank you to my performers, Annaka Grismer, and Anthony Coniglio for all their incredible work on this piece. They were wonderful to work with. Full Texts and Program Notes below! Texts: Poems by Sara Teasdale I.) Hidden Love I hid the love within my heart, And lit the laughter in my eyes, That when we meet he may not know My love that never dies. But sometimes when he dreams at night Of fragrant forests green and dim, It may be that my love crept out And brought the dream to him. And sometimes when his heart is sick And suddenly grows well again, It may be that my love was there To free his life of pain. II.) A Prayer (From Love Songs) Until I lose my soul and lie Blind to the beauty of the earth, Deaf though shouting wind goes by, Dumb in a storm of mirth; Until my heart is quenched at length And I have left the land of men, Oh, let me love with all my strength Careless if I am loved again. III.) A Prayer When I am dying, let me know That I loved the blowing snow Although it stung like whips; That I loved all lovely things And I tried to take their stings With gay unembittered lips; That I loved with all my strength, To my soul's full depth and length, Careless if my heart must break, That I sang as children sing Fitting tunes to everything, Loving life for its own sake. Program Notes Loving Life tells the story of a young woman discovering her own identity by freeing herself of a dependent romantic mindset. Thus, each song represents a different stage of her emotional development. The first song, “Hidden Love”, represents the woman’s original perspective on love, which is essentially having an overwhelming crush on someone. Thus, the opening line of the first song reveals the woman’s excitement about being in love, but also her fear to express it because of its unfamiliarity. For this reason, she is caught daydreaming about what her love could do for the other person, while in the process losing her own sense of identity. Therefore, the final line of the poem, “to free his life of pain”, is her realization that loving someone else to such an extent has hindered her capacity to love at all, and therefore she is, in fact, in a great deal of pain. The second song elaborates on this theme: the young woman pledges herself to the idea that if she expresses this unconditional love for another person, she will gain some ultimate fulfillment, regardless of how people treat her in return. However, this leaves her in complete despair, when she discovers that she has lost all sense of self, and is helpless to the will of others. The final piece encompasses the young woman’s process of overcoming this loss of self by learning to love the simple things in life. In order to guide this transition, I used the first line of the final poem as a starting and finishing point for the piece, thus revealing her transformation through contrasting connotations. When the first line, “When I am dying, let me know” is presented for the first time the context suggests that she in fact is giving up her life, and no longer cares about whether she lives or dies. However, when this line is sung again to conclude the song, she is saying that someone will have to let her know when she is dying, because she will be too busy loving life to notice. The rest of this song consists of the young woman slowly realizing why life is worth living. She realizes that she should love as much as she can, but that this love should be directed at one person, but towards all the beautiful things in the world. With this mindset she is able to live in a way which is more pure and innocent, but also more mature and stable. Thus, she is able to love life for its own sake. -Video Upload powered by https://www.TunesToTube.com Kategorie:Videos